


R'iia's Breath

by roguesgallery



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fate, Forbidden Love, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Pining, Prophetic Dreams
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-10-19 03:47:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17593994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguesgallery/pseuds/roguesgallery
Summary: Magic is the currency of Jakku, the currency of most of the Outer worlds. Rey finally realizes what the winds have been whispering to her for years. The magic is running out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sciosophia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciosophia/gifts).



> I used your requests from RFFA because Swolos are sexy AND sneaky. I hope you like it! It's just a taste but I am excited to explore this world further. Thanks for being awesome, sciosophia and House Plaidam!
> 
> Thanks to Ash for the beta and The Writing Den's sprinters for the encouragement.
> 
> This work is inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune and Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. You do not need to be familiar with either to follow this story. Kylo Ren's tendency to monologue around Rey will take care of that. ;)

Magic is not wondrous. It’s not beautiful or awesome. It is back-breaking work to collect and often more trouble than it’s worth to use.

Rey should know. She lives in magic’s graveyard.

Rey scavenges for magic every day from sunrise to sunset. If she doesn’t find any, she doesn’t eat and the blasted stuff fights her every step of the way. Magic may not have a consciousness, but it has a will and Rey is convinced that will has been put against her.

Luckily, Rey is the stubbornest creature in a land where finding enough water to drink is a unending struggle.

Plutt says she is his best earner, but Rey finds that hard to believe. Every year the magic becomes more and more elusive; hiding under the sand, shifting through the winds. It becomes more difficult to grasp - stinging her eyes, burning her skin and leaving miniscule cuts on her arms until they feel like more of an open wound than working limbs.

But magic is the currency of Jakku, the currency of most of the Outer worlds. And Rey was finally realizing what the winds have been whispering to her for years. The magic is running out.

Spice, Dust, or as they called it in Jakku, R’iia’s breath, after its tendency to mix in with Jakku’s deadly sandstorm, was a finite supply and Jakku was reaching its end.

There was only one group on Jakku that was interested in R’iia for more than just credits or portions and that was The Church of R’iia in Tuanul. Rey always kept a few days of portions in reserve in case of sickness or storm. Looks like the storm was coming.

She jumped on her speeder, feeding a few precious scraps of R’iia’s breath into the engine. This trip was going to cost her in more ways than one, but she could not see an alternative.

She wrapped her scarf around her mouth and nose, adjusted her goggles and set off.

 

* * *

 

Rey wasn’t well liked in Tuanul, she found it too hard to hide her distaste for religion, but a woman, beating sand out of clothes on a line, still directed her to Lor San Tekka. He was their holy man despite not being particularly adept at finding or manipulating R’iia’s breath. His voice was sagacious and his back straight despite decades in Jakku’s cruel climate, so Rey figured that had to count for something. Not many stood straight in Jakku, too many with their eyes down, looking for that next piece of scrap.

He stood when she came into the tent, placing a precious paper-bound book down on a wide desk. “Rey of Jakku,” he said, politely sidestepping her lack of last name. “What brings you to our village?”

Rey got right to business. She didn’t know any other way to be. “R’iia’s breath is running out. I’m the best scavenger Plutt has and I’m struggling. Others must have it worse. What happens when it's finished?”

Lor San Tekka took a deep breath, but did not look startled by her words. He gestured for her to sit on a folded mat. She sat, crossing her legs, but keeping her staff within reach.

“Are you asking for Jakku or for the galaxy?”

Rey scoffed. “I’m asking for myself. I can’t leave and I don’t want to starve.” Again.

Lor San Tekka picked up a small object. It was cylinder shaped and looked to be completely made of pristine welded R’iia’s breath. It would be worth weeks of portions in that condition. He ran his fingers over the delicate markings that circled the case.

When he spoke, it did not seem directed at her. More like she was spying on him practicing a sermon. “This will begin to make things right. I've traveled too far and seen too much to ignore the despair in the galaxy. Without R’iia there can be no galaxy. We will all be trapped on our small worlds, unable to fly across cities, much less the vastness of space. Our lives will become small and ignorant.”

Rey’s frustration mounted. “I don’t give a blast about the galaxy. I want to survive! I don’t want Jakku to eat itself alive!”

Rey heard a strange sound outside the tent. It got louder quickly and stirred up the sand. She felt the noise deep in her chest. The tent flaps whipped back and forth. Lor San Tekka grasped her hand. Rey tugged against his hold reflexively, but stopped struggling when he placed the cylinder in her palm, closing her fingers around it. “Take this,” he commanded, “and hide!”

He straightened his shoulders and marched out of the tent, ignoring the gusts of wind and sand. Rey could see why his people followed him. She peered out an opening where the tent fabric had loosened from its poles.

A bat winged shuttle had landed in the heart of the village. Rey had never seen a craft so new and sleek. Most ships that came to Jakku were freighters, held together with a prayer and R’iia’s breath. This shuttle looked almost like it would take flight on its own. Of course, it wouldn’t, Rey could smell the magic coming off it, a strangely sweet scent that one couldn’t help but take deep into their lungs even as it burned.

The shuttle’s bay door opened, letting out a tall, hulking figure all in black. With the sun only half set, it was a completely ridiculous outfit for Jakku and immediately made Rey question the wearer’s intelligence. The two figures behind him, covered in armour, weren’t much better, but at least they were in white. What were rich core worlders doing in Jakku? In Tuanul?

Lor San Tekka approached the man in black. The villagers all looked frozen.

He was wearing a mask, not a bad idea in Jakku, but it made his voice come out low and distorted, “Look how old you've become.”

“Something far worse has happened to you,” San Tekka retorted sternly.

“You know what I've come for.”

“I know where you come from. Before you called yourself Kylo Ren.”

“The map to Skywalker. We know you've found it, and now you're going to give it to me.”

“This is not the life you were raised for,” Lor San Tekka said, and Rey thought he looked sad, but it was impossible to be sure at this distance.

“There are many nights when that thought is the only one that brings me comfort.”

“You know I cannot give it to you.”

The man in black nodded, then grasped San Tekka’s neck viciously, almost lifting him off the ground. Rey looked around desperately. Sure, she wasn’t crazy about the old priest’s religion, but he had tried to help her. She didn’t want to watch him die. Why weren’t the villagers doing something? They were all just standing there, staring!

“You old men think that you know what is best for the galaxy, even as we are falling into the abyss! Your obsession with balance and purity will doom us all!” His grip tightened and Rey could no longer watch. Three against one were terrible odds, but she had faced worse. Maybe the villagers just needed to be shamed into action.

Rey got up from her crouched position, silently, slowly, moving into an offensive stance, staff at the ready. She would go for the man in black. He was obviously the leader. If she could knock him out, hopefully the two in white would scatter. But as soon as Rey burst out of the tent she found out why the villagers were not moving. They couldn’t.

She couldn’t.

Her yell died in her throat. She could only move her eyes and lungs. Even her chest felt constricted, allowing only the shallowest of breaths.

The man in the mask turned to look at her. He froze, almost making her believe he too was affected by this strange force. Until he whispered, “It’s you,” and dropped Lor San Tekka. The older man fell to the sand, gasping for breath and all hell broke loose.

 

END CHAPTER ONE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lines from The Force Awakens screenplay from [Scripts.com](https://www.scripts.com/script.php?id=star_wars%253A_the_force_awakens_289&p=4)
> 
> [R'iia](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/R%27iia)
> 
> [Tuanul](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tuanul)


	2. Chapter 2

“It’s you,” he whispered. He dropped Lor San Tekka and pressed a button on his helmet. Rey saw it unlatch at the back, uncovering his neck and the bask of his skull. Rey aimed her staff for that spot and hit him as hard as she could.

He dropped like a stunned happabore, kicking up a great amount of sand that threatened to choke Rey. There was movement everywhere. Lor San Tekka was coughing and gasping on the ground, but Rey only had eyes for the two men in white. The two soldiers stared at her, one moving for his blaster, but he was too slow. Rey smacked his hand with her staff, feeling the impact reverberate up her arm. She twirled her staff, up and over her head, thrusting the blunt end into the small area near his armpit where the armour didn’t cover him. It wouldn’t kill him, but he wouldn’t be using that arm for a while. The other put his hands up immediately. Rey was quite proud of herself for a moment until she realized that half of the villagers had drawn some type of weapon on the interlopers. So, the Church of R’iia was not a pacifist religion. Good to know.

Rey motioned to the man in black. “Tie him up.,” she ordered. The soldier who had been smart enough to put his hands up moved to comply and then stopped. “Do it!”

“It just - it’s not going to help once he comes to,” his voice was modulated by the mask, but he sounded almost apologetic.

“He is right.” San Tekka bent at the waist, coughing. A follower hurried to his side with a canteen and he drank deep. “Ropes won’t hold him. Nothing we have will. Except maybe you, Rey of Jakku.”

Rey could not believe the gall of the priest. “You haven’t even answered my question! I need to know what is happening with R’iia. This,” she nudged the man in black none too gently with her boot, “is not my problem.”

“I’m afraid he is all our problem. And perhaps a solution as well.”

Shit like that is why Rey hated religion.

 

* * *

 

They dragged the man in black into San Tekka’s tent and tied him up. Rey insisted no matter what the Priest said. San Tekka was in no position to argue. He could hardly speak without succumbing to a coughing fit. Half of his followers had taken him to their med tent. The other half were stationed at the tent’s opening, fingers not far from their triggers. The smarter soldier helped while the other stood back, still cradling his arm. Rey gave him her sweetest smile. Asshole. But she was happy to have his blaster. Between the cylinder San Tekka gave her and the blaster, Rey was currently richer than she had ever been in her life. She hid the small tube in her chest wrap and holstered the blaster in her belt. If it wasn’t for the fact her whole way of life might be coming to an end, this would have been a pretty great day.

“I’m FN-2187 by the way.” The helpful soldier held out a hand to her and quickly withdrew it as she went for her blaster.

“Who is he?” She pointed her weapon at the fallen man. “ A friend of yours? ASS101?”

“No, no. I guess he’s our boss? I’m not really sure where he fits in the chain of command. He kinda gets to do his own thing.”

“And that thing is strangling peaceful villagers?” FN-2187 had his helmet on, but he still managed to convey incredulousness at the sheer amount of fire power surrounding the tent. Rey rolled her eyes. “Peaceful before you got here.”

“I guess. Kylo Ren is way above my clearance level. I just got off sanitation duty.” Rey raised an eyebrow. “It was punishment! I’m actually kind of a big deal. Officer potential.” He puffed out his chest but deflated. “Well, probably not now. I don’t think you get promoted for tying up the Master of the Knights of Ren.”

“R’iia’s breath! What is up with you guys and names? Is there a drinking game involved?”

Silence, and then the other soldier spoke up. He sounded bitter, “Our names are assigned to us. We don’t exactly have a choice.”

Rey felt a pang deep in her chest, despite her own better instincts. _Don’t get involved. Don’t get involved._ “So, you aren’t recruits? Or mercenaries?” Blast.

He snorted. “Hardly. We are war orphans. Some given up. Some taken. If we don’t conform, we get reconditioned. If we don’t kill, we die. Which one do you think will happen to old Slip here, FN-2187?” He bit out each number clearly, even through the mask.

FN had his hands tightly clenched. “Don’t talk like that.”

“Come on, man. You know it’s true. You are Phasma’s golden boy, except for when you try to pull my weight. But me, _me_ , I’ll never be First Order material and you know it.”

FN-2187 didn’t seem to care about the blasters pointed at him anymore. He strode over to Slip, grabbing his helmet and pressing their armoured foreheads together. “I’m not going to let that happen to you. You are my brother.”

“You could just leave.” Shit, fuck, blast!

“What? Lady, I don’t know how much news you get in this graveyard but you don’t get to leave the First Order. They raised us. They own us. The Republic is too busy trying to hold on to power to care about what some old Generals are doing to cast off kids in the Unknown Regions.” Slip said. “They only care about protecting the Core Worlds and their stockpiles.” he spit out.

“If the rumors are true, the Republic wouldn’t be able to feed us even if we could get to the Core Worlds.” FN added.

“So? You don’t need them.” She shrugged. “You have a ship. A good one. I can show you how to disable the tracking device. It’s the first thing Plutt does to any ship that lands here.” They both turned to her, staring. “It’s not hard,” she finished awkwardly. Like she didn’t just offer to help two strangers go AWOL. But she knew what it was like to be a slave in everything but name. She cleared her throat. “For a price, of course.”

“I would hug you, but I think you might kill me,” FN choked out.

“Good thought.” But she smiled. “Come on, we have work to do.”

 

* * *

 

Rey sat by Kylo Ren for the rest of the night. FN had offered her a spot on the ship. He had sounded sincere, despite Slip’s silent disapproval. She had turned him down. She had to. But she couldn’t help imagining what would have happened if she had agreed. They could have gone anywhere, could have been anyone... She didn’t realize she had drifted off until something woke her. It was him. He was tossing and turning, fighting against the binds. He sounded like he was struggling to breathe. The catch at the back of his helmet was smashed beyond usefulness but with some gentle maneuvering she was able to get the helmet to release and she pulled it off. The first thing she noticed is that he was still unconscious. The second, that he was human, like her. Third, he was in terrible pain.

“No, no, don’t Uncle. Please don’t,” he could hardly be understood, he was clenching his jaw so hard that the chords in this neck stood out. “No, Snoke, my lord, I will be better. I will. I can, I promise-”

Rey’s traitorous hand smoothed the sweaty hair from his brow. It was longer than she would have thought practical under a helmet, dark and thick. His lips pressed together as if even in sleep he was desperate not to show his distress. He had moles on his cheeks and his chin, but the rest of his skin was so pale, whiter than Rey had ever seen. Not that there were too many humanoids on Jakku, and none who were as tall and as broad as him. Is this what Inner Worlders looked like? Regal, even in their suffering? Rey couldn’t help but feel that, while he was human, he must be a different species than her. His skin was so soft... his lips even softer.

He grabbed her hand. She gasped and felt behind her for the blaster. The damn thing must have fallen out of her belt as she slept. He smiled and she froze. He brought her hand back to his mouth, his words feeling like kisses against the callused pads of her fingers, “I knew you were real. I knew the Force couldn’t want us to be alone forever.” His eyes closed, dark eyelashes fanning against his pale cheek.

Rey couldn’t move. Her heart was beating through her chest and her hands were shaking. What the fuck was the Force, and how had he gotten his hands free?

She did not sleep for the rest of the night and she did not take her finger off the trigger, or her gaze off his now peaceful face.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Core Worlds](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Core_Worlds)
> 
> [Slip (FN-2003)](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/FN-2003)


	3. Chapter 3

Rey would swear on the memory of her family that she did not fall asleep. When she fell it was something much harder and deeper than mere sleep.

Rey dreamed.

She dreamed of a boy, alone and so sad. So angry. His mother tried to understand him, but his anger scared her, reminded her of the darkness in herself. She prided herself in always moving forward. But moving forward did not allow her to face her past, her own monsters. She saw shadows in her son. Worse, she saw power.

His father was a man with an endless heart and no skills to show it. He had raised himself and had no idea how to comfort his son once he was beyond a kiss to a bruised knee. He often thought of the sweet infant he had rocked to sleep and marvelled at the sullen child before him.

The boy’s abilities showed early. Anything touched by R’iia’s Breath was drawn to him. Even droids with their tiny spark of breath would find themselves ignoring their programming to bring him another cookie, a banned toy.

It was a droid who told him the truth.

Maybe that is when his parents started to withdraw. They knew what was coming. They knew what happened to children touched by R’iia. They were chosen. They were special.

They would not love. They would not marry. Yet, the whole galaxy would be their charge, their children.

Through them, R’iia would make her presence known. Through them, the galaxy would flow.

 

* * *

 

When Rey came to, she was home.

AT-ATs, like droids, lasted longer than ships. It seemed the less a machine needed the Breath of life to awaken it, the slower it would decompose once its purpose was exhausted. Some priests of a philosophical bent argued that the closer a machine resembled a sentient being, the longer it could hold onto its Breath. Rey thought it was much simpler than that. AT-AT and droids were made of metal; nuts, bolts and circuits. The drop of Breath that gave them life was barely 0.05% of their components. Though it was sacrilege to some, Rey has been able to repurpose droid parts into working machines that she believed had no Breath left in them. They only did simple tasks, they could not defy gravity or think for themselves, but they moved. They had purpose, if not life.

Rey was able to keep her AT-AT mostly whole by patching it with these Breathless parts. She was sure this was a secret most on Jakku discovered if they wanted to survive. Maybe on core planets you wouldn’t realize that Breathless objects still had value, Breath being so copious that you could toss anything once it stopped responding to your demands; droids, ships, communicators. Magic flowed through the core worlds like rivers, apparently. Yet another difference between the Outer Rim and the privileged Inner worlds.

It was not spoken of, but Plutt had given her portions (small portions, but food all the same) if she brought in sturdy enough Breathless parts, so they obviously were still worth something. Plutt did not give charity. Rey still owed him 25% of any haul she made to pay off the room (a pallet under a bench in his workshop) and food (so little that she soon learned to stomach the gruel he fed his animals) he had “given” her until she was old enough to find and defend a place of her own.

Rey didn’t love her home, it was sharp, gritty and rusted, but she was grateful for it. So, she wasn’t spooked when she opened her eyes to the familiar lines scratched into the wall, the coarse blankets covering her, or the lone spinebarrel plant that sat by her bed. It’s bud was closed, which meant it must be daytime. To wake after the sun was a strange enough occurence to freeze Rey in her bed. Then she felt it. She felt _him_ , inhabiting a space that always been her refuge, as lonely as it was. She closed her eyes tightly, desperately trying to reason her way out. How had he found her home? How had he got them both away from Tuanul? And what did he want?

“I know you are awake.”

Rey scrambled into a sitting position, throwing her blankets away from her. She pushed herself into the side of the AT-AT so strongly the whole machine creaked and complained.

He was sitting as far from her as possible in the cramped conditions. He no longer looked sweaty or in pain.

He was beautiful.

Rey fumbled at her waist.

“I’ve removed your blaster. And your staff,” his voice was rich and low with a strong Coruscanti accent. Rich Inner World boy.

“How did we get here? How did you know where I lived?” Rey could stall. She had weapons hidden all over her home. She just needed to move a little further left...

“I dreamt it.”

“You dreamt the directions to my home?”

He snorted. “No. I dreamt of you. Here, like this. Those buns in your hair and the scratches in the wall. So alone. I’ve dreamt of you for years.” His large brown eyes ran over her. He looked hungry and sustained at the same time. “But they were never kind enough to give exact coordinates. I retrieved them from your Speeder’s nav history.” His tone was dry. “Please don’t.” Her hand stopped its careful searching under her pallet. It was if her hand no longer belonged to her. It felt alien. She shuddered. “You must understand that you will not be allowed to best me again. My…” he pursed his lips, “sentimentality allowed you a lucky strike. It will not happen again. You are untrained and ignorant and I am a Master of the Knights of Ren.”

“You say that like I should be impressed. All I see is a man who has let himself into my home uninvited and thinks to control me. I know how to deal with men like that.” She bared her teeth at him.

Strangely, his face softened at her threat. “You are marvelous. So much anger, so much pain.” He raised his hand and the power holding her released. For the first time since meeting this strange man, Rey felt real fear. She felt like prey. If he had seen her as a true threat, he would never had released her.

“Let me introduce myself. I am Kylo Ren. I came here searching for the whereabouts of the heretic Luke Skywalker.”

“Luke Skywalker? The Jedi? I thought they were extinct.”

“One day soon, they will be relegated to the dust of history, but for now one remains. He has been in hiding for almost a decade, hiding from the consequences of his actions.”

“And you are that consequence?” To Rey’s surprise, he smiled, tight lipped and painful.

“That I am. I am just as he made me.”

“You knew him?” Rey was curious despite herself.

“Ah, yes. He was my master for many years.” He leaned forward, dark eyes staring unblinking into her own. “Tell me, what do you know of the Jedi?”

Rey shrugged. “They can feel R’iia. Manipulate it even. They discovered it over a millennium ago and learned how it could breathe life into machines, allowing for travel at speeds and distances never possible before. We built the galaxy with their knowledge and skills.”

“How quickly history is rewritten by the victors. No matter, soon all will know the truth. The Jedi have indeed been around for millennium, but they were a weak, insignificant order, focused on meditation and self denial. It was a splinter group within the Jedi, the Sith, that discovered Breath. They discovered how it could free the galaxy from the constraints of science. They discovered how it would allow the godly to use it to strengthen a galaxy that was floundering under the weak rule of the Old Republic. They passed down the secret from Master to Apprentice for thousands of years, slowly expanding their ranks until all Jedi could find and use Breath.”

“I though the Jedi used the Force.”

“An antiquated term. They are one and the same. But such power could not be trusted outside the Order. The Old Republic was corrupt and divided. They stockpiled Breath and bided their time. They had to wait until a Sith had finally amassed the sort of power which would allow him to direct the use of R’iia, so it could not be squandered and spent by the recklessness of the Republic.”

“That is ridiculous. Children can find R’iia. I did.”

“I’m sure you did.” He looked pleased by her admission. “Tell me, what year is it?”

Rey could not help a quick glance at the hundreds of scratches on her wall. “34 ABY.”

“ABY. After the Battle of Yavin. And what happened at the Battle of Yavin?”

Powers or not, Rey was going to hit him soon if he continued insulting her intelligence. “The destruction of the Death Star.”

“And how was the Death Star constructed?”

“With Breath.”

“Yes. It was the first large-scale project given the Breath of Life. The first project that introduced R’iia Breath as something that could transform the lives of the whole galaxy. Never had anything been built at such a grand scale. It should have disrupted the gravity and movement of all planetary bodies around it, yet it didn’t. It could have remade the universe. If it had not been for the traitor Galen Erso, it would have lived as a monument to the Empire for millenia. With the building of the Death Star, despite its destruction, we entered a new age. The age of R’iia. The age of God.”

Rey barely managed not to roll her eyes. Kylo smirked. “You do not believe, but you will.” His certainty chilled Rey even as the AT-AT was warming under the morning sun. She needed to get away from this man.

“I have been a horrible guest,” he said, his voice unbearably polite. “I have brought food and drink. It had to be liberated from Tuanul, of course, after you let my ship and all its supplies fly away, but no matter.”

 _Not all its supplies_ , Rey thought, but kept quiet.

Kylo reached into one of Rey’s saddle bags, taking out a large flask. He took a long swallow, an action which Rey found unaccountably fascinating. Her cheeks burned when he caught her watching. He passed her the flask without a word. She took it, careful to not let their fingers touch. His hands were so large. Calloused and scarred like hers, but so clean.

Rey drank deep. The water was gritty, but she had had worse. Kylo gave her a protein bar. Nothing fancy, but better than Unkar Plutt’s rations. She ate it in three big bites.

In the silence, Rey could almost pretend that this wasn't a forced meal with an unstable stranger. She had never had a man in her home before. She could see how sharing quiet moments with someone else could be...nice. She had fantasized about a companion when thinking of her family felt too tender. Someone to help with her salvage jobs. Someone to talk to. Someone to keep the cold desert nights at bay with their body's warmth, their heartbeat to listen to when Rey thought she would go mad from rattle and roar of the the wind. 

Not him, obviously. But someone.

“Do you know how the Jedi manipulated R’iia’s Breath? How I can move things without touching them? Freeze a whole village with a thought?”

“No.” Rey scowled. She did not like being called out on her lack of schooling.

“Do not look so defensive. It is a well-kept secret. They ingest it.”

“What? That’s ridiculous! You may as well throw it into a black hole or swallow a kyber crystal! Who would waste it like that?” Rey was more than shocked, she was offended. The thought of such waste made her see red.

“Yes, that’s true if you were born...ordinary. But some of us can consume it. We can _use_ it. We can Force it to bend to our will.”

“Why are you telling me such a grand secret?”

“Because you are like me. You just need to learn.”

“And you will be my teacher?” She scoffed and he winced. For the first time since she woke, he lost his confident expression. His face was completely open, completely vulnerable.

“Yes,” he whispered. And she could feel him - the wanting, the longing, the desperate hope. Rey’s mind whirled. What sort of powers did this man have? Were these feelings true or manipulation? Rey was made up of a hard-won mix of pragmatism and suppressed loneliness. She did not trust easily and this man had given her no reason to trust him, yet his sincerity cut right into the core of her. It felt _real_. She could not imagine anything more tempting in that moment than the promise of learning and attention. It was dizzying how badly she suddenly wanted to accept his offer.

She pushed back against the urge. She could not trust him and his dark eyes made her not trust herself either. Loneliness could cut into you, make you wish for the most ridiculous things. She couldn’t let that part of her overrule her good sense. Nothing had changed. She had no family and soon would have no way to make a living. Pragmatism, that she could trust. She had gone to Lor San Tekka for answers. Maybe this Kylo Ren had them.

“Let’s say I believe you. What sort of abilities are you talking about?”

He slipped on the mask of arrogant lecturer again. “It’s kinetic energy. Movement. We can do what R’iia can do - move objects, stop them. A ship with one of us on it becomes faster, more efficient. We defy gravity, physics. We are-”

“Magic,” Rey finished.

“Divine,” he corrected.

“Divine?” Rey wanted him to open up, but again she could not hide her distaste.

“Jakku named it after the goddess of its world, is it so strange to believe that it sprung from the divine, as did we?”

“I don’t have that kind of faith. If there is a god that created all this,” she pointed to her empty pantry, the marks on the wall, “I don’t want to meet it. It does not deserve my faith.”

Anger flashed over his face. It was fascinating to watch him try to fight it down. “You do not know of which you speak. Ignorance can be forgiven. You will see the true path soon enough.”

Rey bristled. All thoughts of drawing more information out of him fled in the face of his condescension. She leapt to her feet. “Why should I listen to you? A rich Core Worlder who attacks old men and abducts women?”

Ren stood, towering over her, even as he was forced to bend slightly in the cramped AT-AT. “That old man is a heretic! He worships God’s shadow when His body is everywhere around him! He is a fool and an enemy of the one true God!”

“I think you should go.” Rey forced herself to sound firm and unafraid. Ren’s anger filled the small space. It felt like the moments before a storm when the air was heavy and thick.

Despite her brave face, he seemed to sense her panic. His face softened and voice lowered, “I have seen the face of God. Just as sure as I see you before me. He has spoken to me since the first time I took R’iia into my body. But you, you I saw before him. I would meditate and try to find peace, to open myself to R’iia, but all I would see is you.”

Rey had no words. No one had ever looked at her as he did in that moment. Like she was special. No, more than special - irreplaceable. Something within her whispered to accept him, accept the power. She was hypnotized by his dark eyes, soothed by the hum of his breath...

Her hand flew to her mouth. “What did you give me?”

He smiled gently. “The body of God.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canonverse takes a village especially when you are crazy enough to try to add in two other distinct and deep canons. Thanks to thebuildingsnotonfire, Taz and sciosophia for letting me bounce ideas off them!
> 
> As always thanks to my amazing beta reader Ash, who also makes the best moodboards. I am very lucky to have found a community of such talented and supportive people!


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